Budget carrier Ryanair carried 9.5 million passengers in December – up from just 1.9 million year-on-year but down on the 10.2 million carried in November 2021.
The load factor was 81%, which was an improvement on the 73% figure of December 2020, but lower than the 86% load factor in November 2021.
Last month, Ryanair lowered its forecast for its expected December traffic from between 10-11 million to 9-9.5 million, because of travel restrictions imposed amid the rise of the Omicron variant.
It also said its net annual loss would be within the range of €250-€450 million – worse than the previous expected range of €100-€200 million – because of the impact of Omicron.
Furthermore, the carrier cut its January capacity, which will see traffic fall from about 10 million to between six million and seven million passengers.
However, Ryanair’s share price was among the airline stocks to rise on Tuesday as investors were more optimistic about the prospects for travel, with Omicron not causing as many hospitalisations as previous variants.
Picture by Iakov Filimonov/shutterstock.com
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